After an initial amazement for the ways the writer is able to go deep into many aspects of of foreigness and how corrupting and debilitating can be to live as an immigrant, the writer loses her thread and the story wobbles into an unfinished and unsa

After an initial amazement for the ways the writer is able to go deep into many aspects of of foreigness and how corrupting and debilitating can be to live as an immigrant, the writer loses her thread and the story wobbles into an unfinished and unsatisfactory ending. While compassionate and sensitive at first she gets nastier and cruel towards her characters depriving them of all redeaming values in order to show their "humanness". You are left for a dislike of them all while waiting for the story to come back to the initial tenderness, but the book ends without redemption nor true damnation.

Many and many times I was tempted to skip the overly descriptive passages and plunge into the character's feelings and stories: what Kiran Desai does really well is portray the million ways in which the inheritance of loss manifests itself in their l

Many and many times I was tempted to skip the overly descriptive passages and plunge into the character's feelings and stories: what Kiran Desai does really well is portray the million ways in which the inheritance of loss manifests itself in their lives, which are so powerful, and profoundly sad.
In short, "The inheritance of loss" could have been twice as interesting, if it had been half as wordy: too bad that, rather than an award-winning novel, it resembles more an unfinished exercise of style.

this book grew slowly on me. at first it was a bit hard to get back to reading it, even if i liked it.
the first part is very slow, not much happens, but if you keep reading then you'll see that it's a preparation for the second, in which a lot happe

this book grew slowly on me. at first it was a bit hard to get back to reading it, even if i liked it.
the first part is very slow, not much happens, but if you keep reading then you'll see that it's a preparation for the second, in which a lot happens and the situation unravels.

the author is very good at recreating the atmosphere of isolation that you can feel in a place like Cho Oyu during monsoon, with the jungle right behind you and complete silence and darkness overwhelming you at night-time. i particularly enjoyed these descriptions.

the way she portrays ethnic tension in a small village - as a mirror of larger events in India at the time - is very accurate. the parts about the cook's son, a migrant in the US, are also very good: bitter and funny, and thought-provoking.

i would recommend it, especially to those who know the region and have been there for a while, it's a good read.